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Getting Started with Unified Payments (Affiliates)
Getting Started with Unified Payments (Affiliates)

Learn how you can start receiving regular monthly commission payments when working with brands that use Unified Payments.

Andre Tan avatar
Written by Andre Tan
Updated over 7 months ago

With Unified Payments, affiliates can receive regular monthly commission payments from the brands they partner with aggregated into their Unified Payments Wallet, where they can withdraw funds whenever they want. This provides consistency to payments that affiliates can rely on.

In order to start receiving automated monthly payments:

  • The brand you’re working with must have Unified Payments enabled as a payment option. Note: Currently Unified Payments will only make USD payments. Commissions earned in other currencies will be paid through other methods.

  • You cannot be a resident in a country sanctioned by the US government.

Please Note: Not all brands participate in Unified Payments so you might still receive payments via other payment methods for certain brands.

How it works

You can sign up to receive payments through Unified Payments from the Profile tab of your Marketplace dashboard. The sign-up process consists of a few major steps:

  1. Entering your personal information for the KYC process.

  2. Entering your tax information, which will allow us to generate your annual 1099.

  3. Entering your payment information to receive payments.

From the moment you’ve signed up all of your approved conversions from participating merchants will be added to Unified Payments and queued up for monthly payments scheduled for the second Tuesday of every month.

With Unified Payments merchants will be prompted to approve all valid conversions within 30 days so you can expect payment intervals to be regular.

Getting started

There are a few steps required to set up Unified Payments, all outlined below. Once you’ve completed the onboarding, then you’ll be on your way to receiving automated commission payments!


  1. In order to use Unified Payments as an affiliate, a Refersion Marketplace account is required. You can click here to learn more about signing up for Marketplace.

  2. Begin the registration process from the Profile tab of your Marketplace dashboard.


    Once you’re in the Marketplace and you can log in to your Marketplace dashboard, you’ll notice a banner at the top prompting you to setup Unified Payments on your account. Clicking the link in the banner will bring you into your Profile tab where you can agree to the Unified Payments Terms and Conditions. Then you can click ‘Register Now’.

  3. Submit compliance information for the KYC process and verify your phone number.

    This is a form submitted to our partner Dots as a compliance check to verify your identity as a part of our due diligence. You’ll also need to read and accept Dots’ Terms and Conditions.

    You’ll also need to confirm your phone number using a one-time 6-digit verification code, which can be sent to you either via text or voice call.

    You'll also need to verify your email address with Dots. Please check your inbox for an email from Dots that asks you to 'Confirm your email address'.

    Your compliance information will be used to determine your location in the world and whether you are prompted to submit a W-9 or W-8BEN tax form.

    Once submitted, the verification process can take up to 1 week, but is frequently faster. After you submit your personal information, it will be reviewed by our payment partner’s compliance team for verification and approval. Depending upon this review, you may be asked to submit additional documentation.

  4. Submit your tax information.

    Complete the form that best matches your tax status. You may complete the form as an individual or business, as appropriate. When you’ve completed the form, you can download a copy for your records.

  5. Link your payment information.

    Affiliates paid through Unified Payments will have a digital wallet that holds all funds from merchant commission payments. Affiliates can make payouts/withdrawals from their Unified Payment Wallet whenever they want, although if you have a verified payout method connected and if you have funds sitting in your Unified Payments Wallet for 30 days after a merchant sends you a commission payment, then Dots will automatically transfer those funds from your Unified Payments Wallet to your preferred payout method.

    Affiliates have several options for moving funds from their Unified Payments Wallet to their own, non-Refersion account. The options available will vary depending on the affiliate's region, but some common options are listed below:

    • (Instant) bank transfers

    • PayPal

    • CashApp

    • Venmo


    Simply select the option(s) that you prefer and provide the requisite information to get connected.

Please note: There is an option to ‘Automatically pay out to this account’. Enabling this setting means that anytime merchants send commission payments to your Unified Payments Wallet, then those funds will be immediately transferred to the payout method of your choice. However, there is a fee ($1 for domestic affiliates and $1 + 3% for international affiliates) for withdrawing, so you may prefer to withdraw after a certain threshold is reached or after a longer period of time. In that case you would not want to select the 'Automatically pay out' option.

That’s it! Once you’ve added your payment information, you’re all set to start receiving automated payments. You’ll receive an email letting you know once everything has been verified.

Reviewing your Unified Payments settings

Ready for Payout

Once your Marketplace account is connected to Unified Payments, you’ll see a new card labeled ‘Ready for Payout’ on the Dashboard tab of your Marketplace account:

This is the total commission paid by merchants to you that is currently available for withdrawal from your Unified Payments wallet. Clicking the ‘Ready for Payout’ card will automatically send you to your Unified Payments digital wallet in Dots where you can initiate a withdrawal.

Please note: For affiliates located domestically in the US, they will pay a $1.00 payout fee when withdrawing funds from their Unified Payments Wallet. For affiliates located internationally, they will pay a $1.00 + 3% of the withdrawal amount payout fee when withdrawing funds from their Unified Payments Wallet.

Additionally, when withdrawing funds from your digital wallet using either PayPal or Venmo, affiliates have a withdrawal limit of $1,000 USD per 24 hours.

You can also access your wallet by clicking your name in the top right corner to reveal a dropdown, then you can click Unified Payments.

Please note: Anytime you attempt to withdraw more than $500 USD from your Unified Payments Wallet, you will be prompted to confirm your mobile phone number again using a one-time 6-digit verification code.

If you have a verified payout method connected and if you have funds sitting in your Unified Payments Wallet for 30 days after a merchant sends you a commission payment, then Dots will automatically transfer those funds from your Unified Payments Wallet to your preferred payout method.


Tax form best practices (US-based Affiliates)

Individuals

If completing the tax form as an individual, then you'll enter your full legal name, your US Social Security Number (SSN), your date of birth, and the address that you will use on your tax return. It's best to ensure the name you enter matches what you entered on your most recent federal tax return to prevent errors when validating your tax form.

Businesses

If completing the tax form as a business, then please do NOT enter your personal name or "Doing Business As" (DBA) name on the ‘Business Name’ line of the tax compliance form.

Instead, you'll enter your legal business name. If you are unsure what this is, then put the business name listed on your last remitted tax return or the name listed on your company's formation documents.

All other form fields such as address and Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) should be the details for your business.

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